Consumer Tech

Samsung's New Watches Run On Qualcomm, Not Samsung

Samsung's Galaxy Watch Ultra2 and Watch9, on sale from August 7, 2026, both drop Samsung's own Exynos chip for Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear Elite. What the switch costs, and what it means for anyone betting on Samsung silicon.

Consumer TechBy Servola Tech Desk2026-08-104 min read

AI-assisted, edited by humans. | Editor-in-Chief: Leon Soliman | Editorial standards

Samsung's New Watches Run On Qualcomm, Not Samsung

Key takeaways

Samsung's Galaxy Watch Ultra2 and Watch9, on global sale from August 7, 2026, both run on Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear Elite chip instead of Samsung's own Exynos silicon for the first time ever - Samsung's flagship wearable line now depends on its biggest smartphone-chip rival for the part that actually thinks.
Pricing: Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra starts at EUR 2,199 / GBP 1,899, Z Fold8 at EUR 1,999 / GBP 1,699, Z Flip8 at EUR 1,299 / GBP 1,149, Watch Ultra2 at EUR 749 / GBP 649 (up EUR 50 on its predecessor), and Watch9 at EUR 409 / GBP 349 (up around EUR 30 on Watch8). Samsung says pre-orders across the lineup are up more than 30 percent versus the prior generation.
The switch happened because Samsung's own chip division never announced a successor to its Exynos W1000, the processor that powered Watch7, the first Watch Ultra, and Watch8. Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear Elite, a 3nm chip with a dedicated AI processor unveiled in March 2026, filled the gap Samsung's own roadmap left open.
For any EU or UK business buying or standardising on Samsung hardware fleets, the lesson is not about watches: it is that even a company that builds its own phone chips, memory, displays and foundry still cannot always cover its own product line with its own silicon, and that gap now sits with Qualcomm.

What Went On Sale, And What It Costs

Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Z Fold8, Z Flip8, Watch Ultra2 and Watch9 on August 6, 2026, with sales opening the next day, August 7, across 106 markets through carriers, retailers, Samsung.com and Samsung Experience Stores. Samsung says pre-orders for the new lineup are up more than 30 percent compared with the previous generation, though the company has not disclosed absolute unit numbers.

Base pricing in Europe and the UK: Z Fold8 Ultra at EUR 2,199 / GBP 1,899 (256GB), Z Fold8 at EUR 1,999 / GBP 1,699 (256GB), Z Flip8 at EUR 1,299 / GBP 1,149 (256GB), Watch Ultra2 at EUR 749 / GBP 649, and Watch9 at EUR 409 / GBP 349 for the 40mm Bluetooth model. Both watches cost more than their predecessors: the Ultra2 is up EUR 50 on the first Watch Ultra, and Watch9 is up roughly EUR 30 on Watch8.

The Quiet Swap Inside Both Watches

The detail Samsung's own press materials confirm almost in passing is the processor. Both the Watch Ultra2 and the standard Watch9 run on the Snapdragon Wear Elite platform, a chip Samsung's newsroom itself credits as a product of Qualcomm Technologies. Samsung has not shipped an Exynos application processor in a Galaxy Watch this year, a first for the line.

GSMArena's reporting on the pre-launch chip leaks put it plainly: Samsung is dropping its in-house Exynos chips for Qualcomm-made Snapdragon Wear Elite silicon built on a 3nm process. The Korea Times went further, confirming Samsung's own framing that the Qualcomm partnership is 'expanding into smart wearables' and that this is the first time Snapdragon Wear Elite has powered a Galaxy watch.

Why Samsung's Own Chip Team Fell Behind

The previous watch chip, the Exynos W1000, launched in 2024 and powered Watch7, the original Watch Ultra and Watch8. Samsung's chip division never announced a successor. Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon Wear Elite in March 2026 with a dedicated neural processing unit built for on-device AI, and Samsung's Mobile Experience division picked it specifically to support the health and outdoor-tracking features planned for this year's watches.

That is a capability gap, not a cost decision. Samsung's own co-CEO described the policy going forward as choosing 'the technology that best meets the needs of each device' rather than defending Exynos on principle. It is the same logic that has already pushed Exynos out of a growing share of Galaxy phones sold outside Samsung's home market.

What Chip-Vendor Lock-In Costs A Fleet Buyer

Samsung is one of the few companies on earth that makes its own application processors, its own memory, its own displays and, through Samsung Foundry, its own chips for other companies too. That vertical integration is supposed to be the advantage: control over cost, timing and supply that a phone-only or watch-only competitor does not have. This launch shows the limit of it. When Samsung's own silicon roadmap fell behind what the watch category needed, the company went to Qualcomm, the same firm that already supplies chips for a large share of its phones.

For an EU or UK business specifying wearables for field staff, healthcare, or logistics, or simply standardising a device fleet around one vendor for support and procurement reasons, this matters beyond the spec sheet. A single external chip vendor now sits behind both of Samsung's mobile hardware lines, which concentrates supply risk, ties feature timing to Qualcomm's own release cadence rather than Samsung's, and adds a component cost neither company will absorb forever. The lesson holds even if you buy no Samsung hardware at all: brand-level vertical integration is not the same as chip-level independence, and it is worth asking any hardware vendor exactly which parts of the device are actually theirs.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Exynos-to-Qualcomm switch affect Samsung's phones too?

Not directly for this launch. But the same pattern is already visible there: Exynos has been losing share of Galaxy phones sold outside Samsung's home market for several years, and this watch switch extends the same reliance on Qualcomm into a second hardware category.

Is the entry-level Watch9 now built on the same chip as the Ultra model?

Yes. Both Watch Ultra2 and Watch9 use the same Snapdragon Wear Elite platform this year, so the standard watch gets the same core silicon as the premium Ultra tier rather than a cut-down version, unlike some earlier Samsung generations.

Could Samsung bring Exynos back to future watches?

Samsung has not ruled it out, but has also not committed to it. Its own leadership has described chip selection going forward as choosing whichever technology fits each device, which reads as a functional, not a strategic, commitment either way.

The phones are the headline. The chip inside the watch is the story: even Samsung, with its own processors, memory and foundry, could not keep its wearable silicon on schedule, and had to hand that piece of the device to Qualcomm instead.

SamsungQualcommExynosSnapdragon Wear EliteWearablesSupply chain

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